Recent discoveries have shown that the application of polarised light of higher intensities can have a beneficial effect on wound-healing and in a large number of other medical and/or cosmetic applications. The biostimulation effect attributed to the polarised light can also be utilised for certain industrial purposes.
GB No. 2,105,195 (DE No. 3220218.0) discloses the basic theory of biostimulation and a number of lamp arrangements capable of generating polarised light. These lamp arrangements generally comprise a halogen bulb, a reflector, a light collimating system and a polariser. The parallel bundle of light is provided either by a lens system or by a long tube preventing the passage of diverging light. In addition to the cooling problems connected with these arrangements, the maximum spot area cannot exceed a few tens of cm.sup.2. The divergence of the beams makes it necessary to place the lamp arrangement at a distance of about 20-30 cm from the surface to be treated.
In practical applications, the areas to be treated are often larger than the spot area, and therefore scanning of the lamp arrangement is required to provide full illumination of the wound area. The need for scanning implies a number of drawbacks and can be the source of subjective errors caused by uneven scanning movements. In certain applications, a larger lamp-to-surface distance would be preferable.